Editors’ Choice

The Editors’ Choice initiative was launched in 2016 in an effort to ensure that the most high-quality, timely, and topical psychiatry research is highlighted among European Psychiatry readers and within the EPA community. Carefully selected by the European Psychiatry Editorial Board, Editors’ Choice articles are made available for full and complimentary consultation.

Consult European Psychiatry online through the Cambridge University Press journal portal.

2022 Editors’ Choice Articles in Open Access

European Psychiatry , Accepted manuscript
“EPA guidance on assessment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia” and “EPA Guidance on treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia”
Antonio Vita, Wolfgang Gaebel, Armida Mucci, Gabriele Sachs, Andreas Erfurth, Stefano Barlati, Federico Zanca, Giulia Maria Giordano, Louise Birkedal Glenthøj, Merete Nordentoft and Silvana Galderisi

“Negative symptoms remain one of the most challenging symptoms of schizophrenia. European Psychiatric Associations addresses the challenges of diagnosing and treating negative symptoms with two guidance papers authored by a team of internationally recognized experts in the field led by Prof Antonio Vita. The two papers are titled “EPA guidance on assessment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia” and “EPA Guidance on treatment of cognitive impairment in schizophrenia”.

European Psychiatry, Volume 65, Issue 1, 2022, e32
Dynamic networks of psychological symptoms, impairment, substance use, and social support: The evolution of psychopathology among emerging adults
Jacob J. Crouse, Nicholas Ho, Jan Scott, Richard Parker, Shin Ho Park, Baptiste Couvy-Duchesne, Brittany L. Mitchell, Enda M. Byrne, Daniel F. Hermens, Sarah E. Medland, Nicholas G. Martin, Nathan A. Gillespie, Ian B. Hickie

Commentary:
The paper by Crouse et al is focused on the individual symptoms that may precede the development of subthreshold syndromes and its associated social/functional outcomes.
Authors adopted an innovative statistic approach, which is the dynamic Bayesian networks (DBN) to investigate associations among self-rated phenomenology and personal/lifestyle factors in Brisbane Longitudinal Twin Study. They identified several items, such as hypersomnia, impaired concentration, impaired sleep quality, which were associated with higher risk to develop full-blown syndrome in later stage of life.
The innovative probabilistic approach used in this research should represent a useful strategy for developing indicated preventative strategies

European Psychiatry, Volume 65, Issue 1, 2022, e27
Life satisfaction prevents decline in working memory, spatial cognition, and processing speed: Latent change score analyses across 23 years
Nur Hani Zainal, Michelle G. Newman

Commentary:
Life satisfaction is the subjective measure of whether an individual’s cumulative experiences with their health, relationships, careers and lived environment have been generally fulfilling. Prior studies have shown that life satisfaction and cognitive function in older adults are closely associated but that the relationship is complex. In this article, Zainal and Newman  analyzed cognitive and life satisfaction data collected longitudinally over a period of 23 years from 560 participants of the Swedish Adoption/Twin Study of Aging. Their findings indicate a bidirectional association between life satisfaction and cognitive function in terms of memory and processing speed. These findings suggest that life satisfaction and cognition should be considered as dual targets for directed interventions.

European Psychiatry, Volume 65, Issue 1, 2022, e1
Evaluating the performance of machine learning models for automatic diagnosis of patients with schizophrenia based on a single site dataset of 440 participants
Lung-Hao Lee, Chang-Hao Chen, Wan-Chen Chang, Po-Lei Lee, Kuo-Kai Shyu, Mu-Hong Chen, Ju-Wei Hsu, Ya-Mei Bai, Tung-Ping Su and Pei-Chi Tu

Commentary:
The paper by Lee et al addresses the topic on how to improve diagnosis in psychiatry by combining imaging and machine learning for establishing a psychiatric diagnosis. In particular, Lee et al used a large single-site resting fMRI dataset including patients with schizophrenia and healthy controls to develop machine learning models for automatic identification of patients with schizophrenia based on brain-wide functional connectivity FCs.
This study shows promising findings on the improvement of classification accuracy in the mental health field being the largest single site machine learning approach on patients with schizophrenia.

European Psychiatry, Accepted manuscript (February 2022)
On the relation between a green and bright window view and length of hospital stay in affective disorders
Anna Mascherek, Sandra Weber, Kevin Riebandt, Carlos Cassanello, Gregor Leicht, Tim Brick, Jürgen Gallinat, Simone Kühn

Commentary:
“It has long been speculated that the physical environment in which psychiatric care is delivered affects both the treatment process and outcome. Mascherek and colleagues demonstrated that bright and green window views reduce length of hospital admission in patients with affective disorders. These findings providing important input to the architectural design of psychiatric wards”.

European Psychiatry, Vol. 65, Issue 1 (January 2022)
Neural signatures of data-driven psychopathology dimensions at the transition to adolescence
Amirhossein Modabbernia , Giorgia Michelini, Abraham Reichenberg, Roman Kotov, Deanna Barch, Sophia Frangou

Commentary:
“The paper by Modabbernia et al. is focused on the associations between brain organization and psychopathology, aiming to understand the biological underpinnings of mental disorders. Authors found that opposition–disinhibition psychopathology and broad externalizing problems are associated with aberrant cortical maturation and with cortical thickness in frontal association regions, involved in top-down inhibitory control. Additionally, cognitive dyscontrol is associated with lower anatomical and functional connectivity. These findings are very interesting, contributing to the current debate on the nature of brain maturation for externalizing/conduct problems and cognitive difficulties”.

European Psychiatry, Vol. 64, Issue 1 (January 2022)
Did we learn something positive out of the COVID-19 pandemic? Post-traumatic growth and mental health in the general population
Giulia Menculini, Umberto Albert, Valeria Bianchini, Claudia Carmassi, Giuseppe Carrà, Francesca Cirulli, Bernardo Dell’osso, Michele Fabrazzo, Francesco Perris, Gaia Sampogna, Maria Giulia Nanni, Maurizio Pompili, Gabriele Sani, Umberto Volpe, Alfonso Tortorella

Commentary:
“The COVID19 pandemic has been a period of great upheaval at all levels, from personal to societal. In this paper, Menculini and colleagues provide a different perspective focusing on post-traumatic growth, and highlight the increase in appreciation for life during the pandemic. Examination of resilience is an optimistic and important aspect for understanding the entire range of responses to adversity.”

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